Discovery Ball is a personal event for Elizabeth Garcia
(left to right): Elizabeth Garcia, Hal Burstein, MD, and Adolfo Garcia
Elizabeth Garcia and her husband, Adolfo, will be first-time attendees at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Discovery Ball. The 16th annual gala event is being held at The Breakers on Feb. 17 in Palm Beach, Fla.
For the Garcias of Pride's Crossing, Mass., and Palm Beach, the Discovery Ball represents both an exciting and friend-filled event and an opportunity to share their personal story of hope, commitment, and inspiration.
Mrs. Garcia was diagnosed with stage II breast cancer in 2001. Her tumor was HER2 positive, marking it as an aggressive form of the disease. She went through the conventional treatment - surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy - and at her six-month check-up in 2003, she was told by her doctors at that time that she was cancer free.
A week later, Mrs. Garcia received a phone call from her oncologist with the shocking news that the cancer had spread to her vital organs. She was told there was nothing more that could be done and that she had approximately three months to live.
Now, three years later, with virtually no evidence of cancer in her body and feeling great, Mrs. Garcia says, "I praise the Lord for leading me to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Dr. Hal Burstein."
They learned about innovative clinical trials going on at Dana-Farber and elsewhere around the country using new drugs that targeted the HER2 protein in her kind of breast cancer. Mrs. Garcia agreed to participate in a randomized clinical trial being led by Dr. Burstein, a clinician and clinical investigator in the Breast Oncology Center. The trial was designed to compare two ways of delivering chemotherapy with a novel, anti-HER2 drug, trastuzumab. Preliminary work with these treatments at Dana-Farber suggested they could be remarkably effective and well tolerated.
"When we first met Dr. Burstein, we were so impressed by his sincere and positive approach, we began to feel a glimmer of hope come back into our lives," says Mrs. Garcia. "In fact, when we left his office that day, we felt such a burden had been lifted, our feet hardly touched the ground." The Garcias have never lost that feeling at Dana-Farber.
Dr. Burstein and colleagues at Dana-Farber have been leaders in pioneering novel combinations of treatment for early stage and advanced breast cancer, often focusing on the combination of new biological treatments with traditional chemotherapy. "The study that Elizabeth participated in," says Burstein, "was the outgrowth of several previous clinical trials all based on Dana-Farber-designed regimens that would be tough on the cancer, but easy on the patient.
"Innovative clinical trials are at the heart of the mission for Dana-Farber," he adds. "We are not satisfied by the old way of doing things, and we want to bring newer, better, and smarter therapies into the clinic to give our patients more hope and opportunity. Clinical trials are the bridge that take us from today's treatments to tomorrow's."
Dr. Burstein emphasizes that clinical trials are not for everyone — in fact, only a fraction of patients at Dana-Farber participate in such trials — but that this kind of research is how progress is made in the fight against breast cancer.
As a patient at Dana-Farber, Mrs. Garcia has had the help of her full clinical team — doctors, nurses, research coordinators, and other caregivers — all focused on helping her triumph over her disease. Mrs. Garcia says that it has been a amazing journey full of life lessons on hope, faith, and selflessness.
The couple are so encouraged by her medical progress on the trial that they recently bought a home in Palm Beach and have gotten a new puppy, Rufus. Dr. Burstein and Dana-Farber made arrangements with an oncologist in Palm Beach Gardens for Mrs. Garcia to receive her ongoing treatments during the winter season.
The Garcias see the Discovery Ball as a chance to let more people realize that there is hope out there for cancer patients of all kinds.
"I just want people to know that there are places like Dana-Farber and doctors like Hal Burstein to turn to," says Mrs. Garcia. "Not only is he a brilliant clinical investigator, but a truly compassionate doctor."
